concludes that the temporal determinations of narration are more important than the spatial ones.
3.1 Juri Lotman and Semantic Space
The semiotician JURI LOTMAN, on the other hand, points out for the first time that it is precisely the design of space that is of decisive importance in the production of meaning.
“The most general social, religious, political, and ethical models of the world, with whose help man comprehends the world around him at various stages in his spiritual development, are invariably invested with spatial characteristics […] This property of spatial models is extremely important for art.” (318)
Lotman does not define more precisely what he understands as an artistic text, but since he develops his model paradigmatically through narrative texts, it can be assumed that he links his considerations to the narrative form. He calls the narrative text a “plot,” whereby for him this plot consists of three necessary elements:
1 “some semantic field divided into two mutually complementary subsets;
2 the border between these subsets, which under normal circumstances is impenetrable, though in a given instance (a text with a plot always deals with a given instance) it proves to be penetrable for the hero-agent;
3 the hero-agent.” (240)
Put simply, Lotman formulates a minimal definition of a narrative. For him, this consists of two spaces separated by a border and a protagonist, whom he calls “hero.” The most important and defining step in the plot is the hero-agent’s crossing of a border.
What is particularly important here is the concept of the “semantic field,” (97) which describes the narrated world. As shown, Lotman assumes that the human cognitive process and thus the production of meaning is primarily spatially organized, i.e., that space is the bearer of meaning, whereby Lotman is in agreement with more recent human geographical and cognitive psychological findings. According to Lotman, this semantization of space takes place in narrative texts on three levels: first, space is characterized by binary topological oppositions such as “above vs. below” or “inside vs. outside.” Second, the topological oppositions are linked to semantic oppositions such as “good vs. evil,” “protected vs. unprotected,” or “artificial vs. natural.” Third, in the narrated world, these oppositions are created by spatial conditions and topographically realized in the text of the narrative, for instance as mountain and valley, house and forest or – as Lotman shows in Dante’s Divine Comedy – heaven and hell.
The space in narratives is thus not a neutral container, but through semantization makes action in this space meaningful in the first place. This is where the second important term of Lotman’s definition comes into play, the border. For Lotman, the most important topological feature of space is the boundary, which divides semantic space into at least two subspaces in opposition, such as urban and rural space, or the profane world of everyday life in opposition to the magical world of adventure. In Lotman’s model, the motif of crossing the border is of particular importance: the border is impermeable and insurmountable for everyone except the hero of the narrative. Crossing the border defines him or her as the protagonist of the story.
Although he does not refer specifically to his works, Lotman is in agreement with the aforementioned anthropologist Joseph Campbell and his concept of the monomyth. Here, too, the moment of crossing borders is a constitutive element, from the world of profane and everyday life to the world of magic and adventure. Christopher Vogler, who has used Campbell’s insights as a structuring model for film dramaturgy, also recognizes the structural border between the 1st and 2nd acts in the hero’s transgression of boundaries. Campbell describes the semanticized spaces and their topological connections. According to Campbell’s observation, the hero is often prevented from crossing the border by a threshold guardian, which can also be depicted by a high wall or a large gate. In mythological narratives, these borders are usually positioned at the upper or lower end of the world – also topological attributions. Thus, the heroine in Mother Holle must first jump into a deep well, needing to reach the very bottom of a deep hole. Having arrived in the magical world, the heroine has to help Mother Holle, who is responsible for snowfall on planet Earth – and so, is carrying out her duties at the very top of the vault of heaven. The hero’s way back into the world of everyday life leads her through a large, magnificent gate where she receives her reward in the form of golden.
Frau Holle monument in the Frau Holle Park in Hessisch Lichtenau. Photo by Markus Kroll, Creative Commons license.
Lotman’s model can be especially useful when applying it to mythological narratives, not only to the original sagas and myths that Campbell has studied but also to narratives built on similar structural principles. Thus, in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, the hero Frodo has to move from his homeland, the green valley in the Shire, to the elevated, black Mordor, from bottom to top, from fertile land to barren mountains, from idyllic, good homeland to an evil foreign land. Only he and his companion Sam Gamgee cross the border to Mordor, where the giant spider Shelob guards the threshold. It should be noted that the border to Mordor is by no means the only one the heroes have to overcome. Middle Earth, the setting of the novel, is made up of a multitude of semantic spaces with different topographical features: the companions must cross the dangerous and enchanted Old Forest, they must climb the desolate, deserted Weathertop, and they must descend into the dark, underground mining town of Khazad-dûm.
Lotman’s model not only serves to analyze mythological plots but can also be applied to the study of modern literature, such as Thomas Mann’s novella Death in Venice, where the spaces Munich and Venice are semanticized by opposition couples such as home vs. abroad, land vs. the sea, hetero- vs. homosexuality. Crossing the border from Germany to Italy, Gustav von Aschenbach flees from the repressive bourgeois world in which he is forced to suppress his homosexuality. In Venice, he finds his sexual identity, but has to pay for this border crossing with his life.
The model is not only applicable to verbally conveyed narratives, but the semantics of space and the associated transgressions of boundaries can also, in principle, be depicted in all media. Although most of the film Titanic is set on the ship of the same name, semantic spaces can also be found here, including the boundary crossed by the main characters. The ship is divided into upper and lower decks, on which the members of the respective social classes travel, according to the topological classifications of the upper and lower classes. Jack, a penniless artist from the lower deck, meets Rose, a young woman from the upper class, while she is trying to kill herself. He prevents her from committing suicide and is invited to a dinner on the upper deck, thus crossing the semantic social border. He asserts himself in the upper ballroom during dinner and wins the dining party’s sympathy, although Ruth, Rose’s mother, challenges him with mocking remarks. Thus, Jack also proves that he is a real archetypal hero, a “master of the two worlds” (212–220) in the sense of Campbell because the hero of the monomyth can move in both rooms. But now it’s up to Rose to discover her potential as a hero. Jack invites her to a party on the lower deck. She sneaks out to the party, overcoming the topographical border, and then she goes, against convention, to the lower deck, and thereby also crosses a social border because as a member of the upper class she is not allowed to join the lower social classes. And she crosses another border as she celebrates on the lower deck because wild, exuberant dancing to bagpipes and fiddles is no suitable pastime for a girl from the upper class, which is made clear by a parallel-cut to the stiff, high-society activities happening on the upper deck. Rose also becomes a master of the two worlds when she impresses the party society on the lower deck with a dance routine and reaps applause for it. The Titanic is divided into top and bottom as described in Lotman’s model, with the semantic attributions of rich vs. poor, drive suppression vs. joy of life, and thus, also, reason vs. love. Rose loves Jack but is pressured to marry the
